Yellowstone Valley Astronomy will have an in person Guest Speaker at the Billings Public Library on Feb 14th at 3pm. 

Shane Larson is a professor of Physics at Clarkson University and the Director of Integrated Engineering and Applied Science Projects in the Coulter School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He works in the field of gravitational wave astrophysics, specializing in studies of compact stars, binaries, and the galaxy with both the ground-based LIGO project, and the forthcoming space-based observatory LISA. He is an award winning teacher, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is an avid amateur astronomer, observing with two homebuilt Dobsonians, a 12.5" named EQUINOX and a 22" named COSMOS MARINER. He contributes regularly to a public science blog at writescience.wordpress.com, and posts at Bluesky with the handle @sciencejedi 

A Tapestry of Gravity: LISA and the Future of Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Shane L. Larson
Clarkson University

Virtually everything we know about the Universe has been discovered from the study of photons --- light in all its myriad forms from radio waves, to visible light, to x-rays and beyond.  At the dawn of the 21st century, advanced technology is providing access to the Cosmos through  detection of ripples in the fabric of spacetime itself -- gravitational waves.

These ripples in spacetime, called gravitational waves, carry information not in the form of light or particles, but in the form of gravity itself.  Gravitational waves are messengers which carry the stories of what happens when two black holes collide at the centers of galaxies, of how the compact stars fall into monstrous black holes, and of how the graveyard of the galaxy is filled with the quiet whisper of binary white dwarf stars that spiral together ever so slowly as they fade into oblivion.

This talk will explore the modern description of gravity, what gravitational waves are and how we hope to measure them, and what we hope to learn from their detection. We'll focus on the forthcoming space gravitational wave observatory, LISA, being launched in the early 2030s by ESA and NASA. LISA observations will unveil the stories of what happens when two black holes collide at the centers of galaxies, of how the compact stars fall into monstrous black holes, and of how the graveyard of the galaxy is filled with the quiet whisper of binary white dwarf stars that spiral together ever so slowly as they fade into oblivion. Gravity has a story to tell, and in this talk, we'll explore some of discoveries we hope to make.